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DANIEL WEBSTER. 




A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 



nr 

JUNE 8, 1885. 



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BY MORTIMER M. JACKSON. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 



MADISON LITERARY CLUB, 



JUNE 8, 1885. 



BY 

MORTIMER M. JACKSON. 



DAVID ATWOOD, 

Printer and Stereotyper, 

madison, wis. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 



MADISON LITERARY CLUB. 



The fame of Webster is alike the property and 
the pride of his country. His massive intellect, his 
great endowments, and his remarkable career made 
him known both at home and abroad as "the great 
American," and have given him a place in the world's 
history. He was not the founder of a state, nor a 
renowned military leader, but his conflicts, which 
were with intellectual giants, were wholly in the 
walks of civil life. He was not, as was said of one 
of his contemporaries, " a born aristocrat ; " but he 
sprang from that great middle class which is the 
strength of the Republic, and was the product of 
that sturdy republicanism which is born of our free 
institutions. 

So much has been written concerning his life and 
public services, and his labors and achievements are 
so well known to the great body of his countrymen, 
that to attempt a narrative of them here would be a 



superfluous undertaking. I shall, therefore, in this 
imperfect and fragmentary sketch, present only those 
more prominent features of his character upon which 
rest his claims to the respect and admiration of man- 
kind. 

A single poem, a single speech, a single literary or 
intellectual effort, has sometimes made its author 
famous — Gray's Elegy, the Burial of Sir John Moore, 
and Bishop Heber's Missionary Hymn are conspicu- 
ous instances in poetry. 

" Single Speech Hamilton," as he was commonly 
called, acquired celebrity by one exhibition of parlia- 
mentary eloquence. 

The speech of Edmund Burke in the British Parlia- 
ment on the "Taxation of the Colonies;" that of Chat- 
ham in the House of Lords on " The American 
War;" that of Sheridan on "The Impeachment of 
Warren Hastings;" that of Charles James Fox on 
" England's War with France and America ;" and that 
of Lord Erskine on " British Rule in India," would 
alone confer und}dng fame upon their authors. 

In the department of popular eloquence the mem- 
orable address of Abraham Lincoln, at the dedication 
of the Gettysburg Cemetery, affords another illustra- 
tion of the effect produced by a single oration. 

Had Mr. Webster been known to the world only 
as the author of his great speech in reply to Hayne, 
his name would have been enrolled on the list of the 
great orators of modern times. But his fame rests 
not on a single effort. As an advocate, as a jurist, 



as a senator, as a diplomatist, as an orator and as a 
statesman he achieved greatness; and his claim to 
the admiration of mankind rests upon a combination 
of rare intellectual qualities and endowments. 

From the first entrance of Mr. Webster into pub- 
lic life until death closed his political career, he exhib- 
ited a strong love of country and an unfaltering 
devotion to the cause of the Union and of constitutional 
liberty. In his " Supposed Speech of John Adams, 
in favor of the Declaration of Independence," Mr. 
Webster gives eloquent and vigorous expression to 
his own patriotic sentiments. He said: 

"Sir — The declaration will inspire the people with increased 
courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for the restoration of 
privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities held 
under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire 
independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of 
life. 

"Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword 
will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to 
maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from 
the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious lib- 
erty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. 
Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it 
who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon ; let them see it 
who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker 
Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very 
walls will cry out in its support. 

" Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see 
clearlv, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue 
it. We may not live to the time when this declaration shall be 
made good. We may die; die colonists; die slaves; die, it may- 
be, ignominiously, and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it 
be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor 



offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour 
of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live let 
me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a 
free country." 

The bar, the popular assembly, and the senate 
chamber afford appropriate fields for the display of 
the most exalted abilities. Mr. Webster achieved his 
greatest distinction as a member of the United States 
Senate. Here he met in the arena of senatorial de- 
bate intellectual giants, and here, foremost among the 
gifted, he bore the palm of superiority. 

A remarkable illustration of the effect of great ora- 
torical powers upon men of the highest order of 
intellect was afforded by Mr. Webster's great speech 
in the Senate on the 16th of February, 1833, in reply 
to Mr. Calhoun's speech on what was generally 
known as the " Force Bill." This bill was intended 
to punish resistance to the revenue laws of the United 
States, and was particularly aimed at the state au- 
thorities of South Carolina, who, under the leader- 
ship of Mr. Calhoun, had espoused the doctrine and 
the cause of nullification. General Jackson, then 
president of the United States, had determined, at 
every cost, and by the exercise of all his constitutional 
powers as president, to execute those laws through- 
out the entire Union, by military force if necessary. 
In this " nullification contest," Mr. Webster, inspired 
by the loftiest patriotism, manfully came to the sup- 
port of the administration of his political opponent, 
and advocated with unsurpassed ability the passage 



of the bill. Mr. Calhoun, a man of great intellectual 
power, who exerted a controlling influence over 
southern thought and feeling, had made a long, elab- 
orate and bitter speech in opposition to its passage. 
Pale, nervous, restless and excited, his speech was 
listened to with marked attention and respect by his 
brother senators, who appeared for the time being to 
be in partial sympathy with the " great nullifier," who 
represented South Carolina as a down-trodden and 
oppressed member of the American confederacy. 

When Mr. Webster rose to reply, with that solemn 
and majestic manner for which he was remarkable on 
great occasions, every eye was bent upon him, and 
every ear eagerly listened to catch his words. Mr. 
Calhoun, in his concluding remarks, had declared that 
he had taken his stand "on the side of liberty." In 
replying to this remark, Mr. Webster said: 

" I lo\*e liberty no less ardently than the gentleman himself, in 
whatever form she may have appeared in the progress of human 
history. As exhibited in the master states of antiquity, as break- 
ing out again from amidst the darkness of the Middle Ages and 
beaming on the formation of new communities in modern Europe, 
she has, always and everywhere, charms for me. Yet, sir, it is 
our own liberty, guarded by constitutions and secured by union, 
it is that liberty which is our paternal inheritance, it is our estab. 
lished, dear-bought, peculiar, American liberty to which I am 
chiefly devoted, and the cause of which I now mean to the utmost 
of my power to maintain and defend." 

Continuing his reply, Mr. Webster further said: 

" Sir, those who espouse the doctrines of nullification reject, as it 
seems to me, the first great principle of all republican liberty ; that 



8 

is, that the majority must govern. In matters of common con- 
cern, the judgment of a majority must stand as the judgment of 
the whole. This is a law imposed upon us by the absolute neces- 
sity of the case, and, if we do not act upon it, there is no possi- 
bility of maintaining any government but despotism. We hear 
loud and repeated denunciations against what is called majority 
government. It is declared with much warmth that a majority 
government cannot be maintained in the United States. What, 
then, do gentlemen wish? Do they wish to establish a minority 
government? Do they wish to subject the will of the many to 
the will of the few?" 
. 

" Does not the gentleman perceive, sir, how his argument against 
majorities might here be retorted upon him? Does he not see 
how cogently he might be asked whether it be the character 
of nullification to practice what it preaches? Look to South Caro- 
lina at the present moment. How far are the rights of minorities 
there respected? I confess, sir, I have not known in peaceable 
times the power of the majority carrried with a higher hand, or 
upheld with more relentless disregard of the rights, feelings and 
principles of the minority; — a minority comprehending in its 
numbers men who have been associated with him and with us in 
these halls of legislation ; men who have served their country at 
home and honored it abroad; men who would cheerfully lay down 
their lives for their native state in any cause which they could 
regard as the cause of honor and duty; men above fear and above 
reproach, whose deepest grief and distress spring from the convic- 
tion that the present proceedings of the state must ultimately 
reflect discredit upon her. How is this minority, how are these 
men, regarded? They are enthralled and disfranchised by ordi- 
nances and acts of legislation; subjected to tests and oaths incom- 
patible, as they conscientiously think, with oaths already taken 
and obligations already assumed; they are proscribed and de- 
nounced as recreants to duty and patriotism, and slaves to a for- 
eign power. Both the spirit which pursues them and the positive 
measures which emanate from that spirit are harsh and prescript- 
ive beyond all precedent within my knowledge, except in periods 



of professed revolution. It is not, sir, one would think, for those 
who approve these proceedings to complain of the power of ma- 
jorities." 

The effect of this reply upon that senatorial au- 
dience — composed of the leading statesmen and 
jurists of the country — was electrical. Instead of re- 
garding South Carolina as an oppressed sister state, 
the victim of despotic power, she seemed rather to ap- 
pear as a refractory and rebellious state, which sought, 
by revolutionary means, to throw off all lawful re- 
straint, in total disregard of the constitutional authority 
of the federal government. 

When Mr. Webster had concluded his remarks, 
and the great debate on the Force Bill had been 
brought to a close, no spectator could mistake the 
sentiment of the great majority of that distinguished 
body in opposition to the heresy of " nullification." 

Among Mr. Webster's contemporaries of the 
Whig party, Henry Clay was the most conspicuous 
and enjoyed the highest degree of popular favor. 
Their names were associated in the minds of their 
admiring countrymen as were those of Pitt and Fox 
in England. Walter Scott thus referred to the great 
English statesmen: 

" Beneath each banner proud to stand, 
Looked up the noblest of the land, 
Till through the British world were known 
The names of Pitt and Fox alone." 

Clay was known as the " great commoner," Web- 
ster as the great senator. Clay thrilled listening mul- 
titudes; Webster swayed grave senates. Clay's 



IO 

eloquence touched the popular heart; Webster's 
irresistible logic and profound learning impressed his 
convictions upon the intellect of the age. 

While Mr. Webster was strenuously opposed to 
the extension of slavery into the free territories of 
the United States, and looked forward, as did many 
of the founders of our government, to the time when 
slavery should cease to exist in the whole land, yet, as 
a constitutional lawyer — bound, in his judgment, 
to abide by " the compromises of the constitution " — 
he gave his support to the Fugitive Slave Law, and 
thus opposed the wishes, sentiments and opinions of 
a large number of his devoted friends and admirers. 
That law was regarded by many as unconstitutional, 
and by still more as barbarous and cruel; and all 
attempts to enforce it shocked the moral sense of a 
humane and christian people. 

It must, I think, be admitted that Mr. Webster, in 
his support of the law, acted in accordance with his 
convictions of duty, and not in a spirit of subserviency 
to the " slave power." 

As early as 1837, in a speech upon the political 
situation, delivered in New York, Mr. Webster uses 
the following language: 

"I frankly avow my entire unwillingness to do anything that 
shall extend the slavery of the African race on this continent, or 
add other slaveholding states to the Union. When I say that I 
regard slavery in itself as a great social, moral and political evil, 
I only use language which has been adopted by distinguished 
men, themselves citizens of slaveholding states. 

" I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or encourage its further 



II 

extension. We have slavery already amongst us. The constitu- 
tion found it in the Union; it recognized it and gave it solemn 
guaranties. 

" To the full extent of these guaranties we are all bound, in 
honor, in justice, and by the constitution. All the stipulations 
contained in the constitution in favor of the slaveholding states 
which are already in the Union ought to be fulfilled, and, so far 
as depends on me, shall be fulfilled in the fullness of their spirit, 
and to the very exactness of their letter. . . . 

" On the general question of slavery, a great portion of the 
community is already strongly excited. The subject has not only 
attracted attention as a question of politics, but it has struck a far 
deeper-toned chord. It has arrested the religious feeling of the 
country; it has taken strong hold on the consciences of men. 

" He is a rash man, indeed, and little conversant with human 
nature, and especially has he a very erroneous estimate of the 
character of the people of this country, wiio supposes that a feel- 
ing of this kind is to be trifled with or despised. It will assuredly 
cause itself to be respected. It may be reasoned with, it may be 
made willing, I believe it is entirely willing to fulfil all existing 
engagements, and all existing duties; to uphold and defend the 
constitution as it is established, with whatever regrets about some 
provisions which it does actually contain. But to coerce into 
silence, to endeavor to restrain its free expression, to seek to com- 
press and confine it, warm as it is, and more heated as such en- 
deavors would inevitably render it, — should this be attempted, I 
know nothing, even in the constitution or in the Union itself, 
which would not be endangered by the explosion which might 
follow." 

With Mr. Webster the love of money was not an 
absorbing passion. In minds of a superior order, 
says Robert Hall, " ambition, like Aaron's rod, swal- 
lows up the whole fry of petty propensities." 

He sought to make his country " great, glorious 
and free " — a beacon light to the nations of the world. 



12 

His great intellectual achievements were not inspired 
by a desire to accumulate wealth; and he lived and 
labored without acquiring riches, and he died leaving 
no patrimony to his children but his illustrious name 
and his imperishable fame. 

He was a statesman — not a politician. He sought 
not so much to aggrandize his party as to advance 
the interests of his country. He had none of the arts 
of the demagogue. He strove to accomplish noble 
ends by honorable means. He was not, however, 
indifferent to popular applause, or insensible to the 
esteem of the wise and the good; but as a states- 
man — faithfully laboring to promote the public wel- 
fare — he sought only that lasting applause which 
follows benefits conferred upon man, and not that 
fleeting popularity which comes from pandering to 
the passions and the prejudices of the hour. 

Mr. Webster was deeply imbued with the spirit 
and the principles of Christianity. This was strik- 
ingly illustrated in his remarks in the Girard Will 
case, which he argued with such marked ability be- 
fore the Supreme Court of the United States. The 
religious element in his character was also further 
shown in his remarks in presenting to the Supreme 
Judicial Court of Massachusetts the resolutions of the 
Suffolk bar upon the death of the Hon. Jeremiah 
Mason: 

"But, sir," said Mr. Webster, "political eminence and profes- 
sional fame fade away and die with all things earthly. Nothing 
of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth. 



13 

These remain. Whatever of excellence is wrought Into the soul 
itself belongs to both -worlds. Real goodness does not attach 
itself merely to this life — it points to another -world. Political or 
professional reputation cannot last forever; but a conscience void 
of offense before God and man is an inheritance for eternity. 

" Religion, therefore, is a necessary and indispensable element 
in any great human character. There is no living without it. 
Religion is the tie which connects man with his Creator, and 
hold-s him to His throne. If that tie be all sundered, all broken, 
he floats away, a worthless atom in the universe; the proper attrac- 
tions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing 
but darkness, desolation and death. A man with no sense of re- 
ligious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe in such terse but 
terrible language as ' living without God in the world.' Such a 
man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, 
and of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away, from 
the purposes of his creation." 

A marked feature of Mr. Webster's character was 
his courtesy and kindness to young men. While he 
was a man of dignified bearing and imposing pres- 
ence, he had none of that cold reserve which kept 
young men at a distance from him. The writer of 
this bears in grateful recollection the kindness shown 
to him, when a young man, by the great statesman. 

No man understood better than Mr. Webster when 
and how to pay a graceful compliment. At a public 
dinner given him in New York in 1837, at which the 
Honorable David B. Ogden presided, Mr. Webster, 
in the course of his remarks upon the political situa- 
tion, made the following reference to that distin- 
guished lawyer: 

"I propose," said he, "to state to you a series of facts; net to 
argue upon them, not to mystify them, nor to draw any unjust 



H 

inference from them; but merely to state the case, in the plainest 
manner, as I understand it. And I wish, gentlemen, that, in order 
to be able to do this in the best and most convincing manner, I 
had the ability of my learned friend (Mr. Ogden), whom you have / 
all so often heard, and who usually states his case in such a manner 
thai, when stated, it is already very well argued." 

On another notable occasion in New York — a 
grand banquet, given in honor of Mr. Webster, at 
which Chancellor Kent was the presiding officer, and 
at which Ex-Chief Justice Spencer was present as an 
invited guest, — Mr. Webster thus happily alludes to 
these great masters of the law: 

" Gentlemen," said lie, " before I resume my seat, a highly grati- 
fying duty remains to be performed. In signifying your senti- 
ments of regard, you have kindly chosen to select as your organ 
for expressing them, the eminent person (Chancellor Kent) near 
whom I stand. I feel, I cannot well say how sensibly, the man- 
ner in which he has seen fit to speak on this occasion. Gentle- 
men, if I may be supposed to have made any attainment in the 
knowledge of constitutional law, he is among the masters in whose 
schools I have been taught. You see near him a distinguished 
magistrate (Judge Spencer), long associated with him in judicial 
labors, which have conferred lasting benefits and lasting character, 
not only on the state, but on the whole country. Gentlemen, 1 
acknowledge myself much their debtor. While yet a youth, un- 
known, and with little expectation of becoming known beyond a 
very limited circle, I have passed days and nights, not of tedious, 
but of happy and gratified labor, in the study of the judicature of 
the state of New York." 

During the stormy period of General Jackson's ad- 
ministration, the Whigs of New Jersey celebrated in 
New Brunswick, in that state, a political victory which 
they had achieved in opposition to the Democratic 
national administration. Mr. Webster was a guest on 



*5 



that occasion and was in his happiest mood, delighting 
all with his wit and sparkling conversation. In his 
after-dinner political speech he attacked with vigor 
and criticised with severity the financial policy of 
President Jackson, but he displayed no ill temper, 
and descended to no personalities. Some of his illus- 
trations were very forcible and elicited enthusiastic 
applause. One, especially, is now remembered. In 
referring to the " iron will " of General Jackson, and 
his persistent determination to carry out, at all haz- 
ards, the "Financial policy"' of his administration, 
Mr. Webster said: "Mr. President, we in Massa- 
chusetts have often heard the roar of the lion but ive 
have never felt hisj>aw? 

A festive occasion, at which the writer was present, 
and which possesses an historical interest, is associ- 
ated with Mr. Webster's name. 

A new era in ocean navigation had been inaugu- 
rated by the arrival in the harbor of New York, on 
the 23d of April, 1838, of the first steam vessel which 
ever crossed the Atlantic. Two steam packets, the 
Sirius, commanded by Capt. Roberts, and the Great 
Western, commanded by Capt. Hoskins, leaving the 
United Kingdom at nearly the same time, arrived at 
New York within a few hours of each other, the 
Sirius preceding. Their arrival excited intense in- 
terest, and the hospitality of the great commercial 
metropolis of the Union, and of its leading citizens 
was heartily and munificently extended to the English 
visitors, who cordially reciprocated the good will 
shown them. 



#»■ 



16 

In recognition of their kind reception Captains 
Roberts and Hoskins gave a splendid banquet on 
board of the Sirius to the mayor and corporation of the 
city, to which were invited as guests a number of 
representative men. There, among others, were 
Webster and Seward, Lieutenant-Governor Bradish, 
Aaron Clark, the popular mayor of New York, 
Stevens T. Mason, the young and talented governor 
of Michigan, and David Graham, Jr., the eloquent 
advocate and accomplished lawyer, who early ac- 
quired distinction at the bar and in the forum. 

Mr. Webster was the lion of the party, and con- 
tributed largely by his genial bearing and discourse 
to its enjoyment. When he rose to speak and to ex- 
tend the greeting of the company to the gallant 
sailors who were entertaining them, he was received 
with shouts of applause. His speech was brief and 
delivered in a conversational style, but with a dignity 
of manner most impressive. His hearty, emphatic 
words of welcome to the noble captains who had led 
the way, as pioneers in ocean steam navigation, met 
a response from all present, who could not fail there 
to recognize the brotherhood of nations, and to real- 
ize that 



^* &<)4£ 



" Peace hath her victories 

"renowned than war." 



He predicted that the application of steam to the 
propulsion of vessels on the ocean would introduce a 
new element into naval warfare, and by making wars 
more destructive would lessen their frequency and 
shorten their duration. 



i7 

Mr. Webster, although not as much given to anec- 
dote as many of his contemporaries,- yet sometimes 
exhibited in conversation with his intimate friends fine 
touches of humor. 

The writer of this recollects calling upon Mr. 
Webster at the State Department, in Washington, in 
company with Mr. White, then a prominent member 
of Congress from western New York. Mr. White 
desired to procure an appointment for a friend of his 
who had been promised an office by Ex-Secretary 
Clayton, who was Mr. Webster's immediate prede- 
cessor. Mr. Clayton, it appeared, amidst the pres- 
sure of official duties and the absorbing cares of the 
State Department, had wholly forgotten his promise. 
Mr. White referred complainingly to this, when Mr. 
Webster quietly observed: " Yes, sir, my predecessor 
divided his favors — some he blessed with offices, and 
some he blessed with promises." 

Mr. Webster's senatorial speeches, his forensic 
arguments, his state papers, and his popular orations, 
all show by the vigor of their style and by the purity 
of their diction how thoroughly he had studied the 
great masters of the English language; and, all 
united, form a colossal monument to his memory 
which will endure forever. 

Thirty-three years have passed away since the 
grave closed over the remains of this illustrious 
American, and to-day two continents acknowledge 
his greatness and claim a common share in his re- 
nown. 



W 73 



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